


Get over it

by TeekiJane



Series: The Boys of Summer [15]
Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-29 23:45:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1011497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeekiJane/pseuds/TeekiJane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haley just can't muster any sympathy for Byron's latest problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Get over it

_I won’t say life’s a bitch and then you die_  
 _Because I do the best to enjoy mine_  
 _You can’t bring me down to a world of self pity_  
Beastie Boys, Get Over It

**Haley**

I can’t say I love working at Kitchen  & Bath or anything, but I do love a couple things about it. One of those is freight crew. The freight crew works Monday through Friday for two weeks straight, seven through four. This might not sound so great, but think about this: in retail, you don’t get too many weekends and nights free; plus, for part-timers it was a boon because it was forty solid hours. When we’d heard about it, By and I had signed up to be considered. We finally got chosen for the shortened session that started July sixth. 

I was a little early on that first Tuesday and had to wait outside for the manager to show up. Shari, the bedding manager, arrived about five minutes later. “Wow, Hay,” she said as she unlocked the door, “You’re eager to get started, aren’t you? Well, lucky you, we got in about four hundred towels yesterday. I’m going to put you and one other person on that. Any preference who I send over to join you?” 

I guess I don’t have to tell you who I picked. I was already buried in chili pepper hand towels (can anyone tell me why they name all the towel colors after foods?) when my sullen best friend came up behind me and picked up a pile of vanilla wash cloths. “Why’d you have to volunteer me for towel duty?” he asked morosely as he plopped them onto a folding table. 

“Well, hello to you, By,” I said, raising an eyebrow to his demeanor. The last time I’d seen him, he’d been almost giddy as he’d left the party with Jeff. He hadn’t told me what he was planning to do after leaving, but Jeff had mentioned a few days before that his mom and stepdad were going out for the evening on the holiday. He didn’t need to draw me a picture after that. “What’s a matter with you?” 

Byron was slamming the wash cloths around as he folded them. Had they been breakable, they all would have been in shards. This wasn’t normal behavior for him; usually when he got mad, he just retreated. After a minute, he looked at me. “Nothing’s wrong. Everything is peachy.” 

“Oh, so this is regular old By behaving like nothing’s wrong, huh? What did those face cloths ever do to you to deserve getting mashed around like that?” 

He didn’t answer that. Instead, he set the wash cloths where they belonged on the shelf and pulled out a bag of bath towels—these ones were called yolk. “Show me how to fold these properly,” he said. 

I sighed as I put a pile of hand towels aside and walked over to his folding table. I briefly demonstrated the procedure without a word, and then watched as he copied it on a second towel. “Seriously, Byron. What bug crawled up your butt and died?” 

I don’t know if it was the use of his whole name or the fact that he was just itching to spill his guts. He sagged. “I kinda got in trouble,” he said vaguely. 

I pushed my folding table next to his and moved aside all the excess chili pepper towels. Out came some eggplant bath sheets. “What kind of trouble? Does this have something to do with your plans with Jeff the other night?” My mind ran off to all kinds of crazy places. Most of them were pretty dirty, so I shook them off and waited for the truth. 

He didn’t make eye contact as he spoke to his towels. “I fell asleep at Jeff’s. His stepdad ended up finding us sleeping in his bed in the morning.” 

I stopped in the middle of folding. “Really?” I made a mental note to ask him for details on what exactly had happened _before_ he’d fallen asleep, some other time when he was in a better mood and we weren’t surrounded by other ears. 

He nodded morosely. I waited for more details on what kind of trouble this had caused. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d hate for my mom to find out that Jordan had spent the whole night in my room. But I was trying to imagine what kind of punishment By’s parents would mete out for that. “What happened?” I prodded. He finally looked at me again and raised his eyebrows. I could only assume that he thought I meant the other type of ‘what happened’, the type I’d vowed to wait to later for. “I mean, what happened after his stepdad came in?” 

By set his towels aside. I grabbed both his and mine and stocked them. He restocked both our tables. Finally, when there was nothing else to distract him, he continued with the story. “Well, I guess my dad had called Jeff’s because he couldn’t find me. So Jeff’s stepdad sent me home. Both Mom and Dad were waiting for me.” He picked up the blueberry hand towel he was folding and looked it over. He’d folded it wrong, so he shook it back open and started over again. 

“Yikes.” I cringed over the image. My parents like to do that too—I think it’s a parent rule that punishment is three times as bad if it’s given by both parents standing together with their arms crossed. “So how bad’s the punishment?”

He looked at me over his towel, which was still wrong. “Punishment? Dad gave me a lecture. I’m supposed to model appropriate behavior for Nick and my sisters, don’t you know.” He shook the towel again. “What am I doing wrong here?” 

I addressed the towel before I addressed him. “Fold it in fifths, then in half.” He nodded and finally folded the towel properly. “You just got a lecture? What’s the problem, then?” 

By had started folding a second towel and he dropped it. “Hay, my dad told me he was disappointed in me. He’s never said that before.” He looked slightly sick to his stomach as he said that. 

I stared for him for a moment as he went back to the towels. “Are you kidding me? That’s what’s bothering you? My dad must tell me he’s disappointed in me at least once a week.” I quickly maneuvered through a stack of wash cloths before I spoke again. “Seriously, By, you haven’t been doing your teenaged years right if your parents aren’t disappointed in you on a regular basis.”

He frowned. “You don’t understand at all,” he said with a sigh. 

I shook my head. “No, I really don’t.” 

We fell silent for a while. I knew he was brooding over my comments, but I didn’t care. I actually did understand where he was coming from. He spends all his time trying to make everyone else happy and be what’s expected of him. He studied hard to get good grades to make his parents and teachers happy. He accepted the big brother role more often than Adam and Jordan did because he knew it would please his parents. Hell, he even did things sometimes just to make _me_ happy, like going to the mall with me—not that I didn’t appreciate that. 

But really. How are you supposed to figure out who you are—not who your parents want you to be—if you don’t sometimes do things your way instead of their way? No wonder it took him four years to come out of the closet. Sheesh. I think sometimes Byron just needs a good, swift kick in the pants to realize what’s good for him. And I was dishing out some tough love here, whether he liked it or not. 

I maintained the silence for a while before I tried to put him out of his misery. “So let me tell you about the fireworks Sunday night,” I said, not waiting for him to sigh that he wasn’t in the mood or anything else of the sort. I spun the tale of how I’d ended up sharing the blanket downtown with Claire, and how Jordan had wound up sitting in the grass. Byron raised an eyebrow as I began to speak but listened silently. He had no reply when I finished. 

We lapsed back into quiet because I was tired of expending the effort. About fifteen minutes before the store opened, Jeff came to join us in the room. “Hey,” he said to both of us. “I just finished top-stocking about twenty five popcorn poppers, and Shari sent me to ask you if you needed any help over here. Lindsey’s supposed to be in at nine, and then I’m back off to the waste land.” 

I gestured vaguely to the bins and bins of towels surrounding us. “Sure can use the help. I think we’re going to be at this all day, even with Lindsey.” 

Jeff grinned and pulled a pack of asparagus bath sheets from the nearest bin. He inspected them from all angles. “I have no idea how to fold these,” he said. 

I rolled my eyes. “Watch me and I’ll show you.” I demonstrated the towel folding procedure once again and Jeff watched carefully. 

Jeff cheerfully began slinging the towels around, seemingly oblivious to Byron’s somber mood. Yet after a minute, I realized he kept watching By out of the corner of his eye, waiting for some acknowledgment. For all By responded, Jeff might as well have not been there. That took a lot of the oomph out of Jeff’s personality, and I realized he was playing it up for Byron’s benefit. 

I was just about to comment on that when the overhead speaker crackled and Shari’s voice boomed from the heavens. “Byron, Lissa just called and said she’s running late. I need you to open the customer service counter until she gets here.” 

I expected Byron to roll his eyes and grumble, but instead he dropped the towels and ran off without a backward glance. Jeff looked over at me and his eyes were serious, his expression guilty. “How mad at me is he?” he said in a low voice. 

I shrugged. “I think he’s more mad at himself than he is at you,” I suggested. 

Jeff let out a long breath. “He sure got away from me fast enough this morning.” 

I repeated the previous gesture. “I don’t think that had so much to do with you as with me. I kinda told him off a little while ago.” He raised an eyebrow. “Don’t worry about that right now. What happened this weekend?” Jeff’s other eyebrow went up. I rolled my eyes. “I mean, with your stepdad.” 

Jeff ducked his head as he continued folding towels. “That was the most embarrassing moment of my life,” he said. I shook my head sympathetically. He continued. “I got shaken awake from the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had to my uptight stepdad standing over me, looking totally disapproving.” 

“That sucks.” 

“Yeah.” Jeff sighed. “Did By tell you what happened to him after he got home? He looked so scared when he left my house, and I know that wasn’t just from Richard being crazed when he sent Byron home.” 

I nodded as I grabbed yet another pack of towels. “Yeah, he got the ‘I’m so disappointed in you’ lecture from his dad. But why didn’t you just call him last night and ask him about it?” 

Jeff tried to smile but failed. He looked lost. “Because I got grounded.” 

I laughed in disbelief. “Are you kidding me?” 

He shook his head. “Wish I were. I’m grounded for a week: no phone, no guests, no going anywhere but work. My mom has about five rules and I broke two of them. Richard said that, since I’m not eighteen for another couple weeks and I’m living rent-free in his house, I’m not too old to ground.” He actually managed a tiny, sheepish smile. “After that, I have a midnight curfew and I’m not allowed to have guests in the house when no one else is home anymore.” 

“Wow.” 

Jeff stuffed his finished towels into the display. “So you’ve heard about me. What’s this about you telling By off earlier?” 

I stacked the extra towels that didn’t fit out on the shelves. “He wanted sympathy for his predicament and I refused to give it to him.” Jeff started to speak but I cut him off. “I just don’t think that his dad being disappointed in him is that horrible a thing. How often do you hear that your dad is disappointed in you?” 

Jeff thought about that for a moment. “All the time,” he admitted. 

“See? And yeah, it sucks. But it’s not the end of the universe. By needs to figure that out now, you know?” I ripped open another bag of towels. 

Jeff turned a little testy. “But, Hay, you of all people know how sensitive he is to this type of thing. I can’t believe you would tear him down like that.” 

Inside, I stewed for a moment. Who was he to come and criticize my relationship with By? Oh yeah. By’s boyfriend. I took a deep breath. “It’s really good to hear you stand up for him like that,” I commented. 

He smiled despite his irritation. “Yeah, well, let’s just say that after this weekend, I’m more sure about my feelings for Byron than I’ve ever been about anything.” 

I gaped at him for a moment, and then started to grin myself. “Ooh, Jeff! Did you get a chance to tell him?” Jeff shook his head. “Well, once he gets over himself and gets out of his snit, you totally should. I might be ‘tearing him down,’ like you said, but you can be the one to build him back up.” 

I would have gone on, but Lindsey appeared out of nowhere and took in the view of the towels. “What is going on here?” she asked. 

I wasn’t sure whether she meant the giant mess of towels or the conversation we were having. I hadn’t really had any cause to spend time with Lindsey, but Jeff had warned me that she was the nosy sort, so I tailored my answer to keep her out of our business. “It’s a towel party and you’re invited!” 

She scowled slightly. “Why do the towels always come in in bulk?” She dug around in the bin, stirring the towels but not really doing anything useful. 

Jeff eyed me over Lindsey’s head and shook his head slightly. I rolled my eyes. “Well, I need to head back to receiving, and see what’s coming in in bulk today. Talk to you later, Haley.” 

As he walked away, I slung some more towels onto my table. “You can use the other table,” I said as she continued to play with the towels but not work. 

She looked at me, like she couldn’t believe I was giving her instructions, but finally got to work. She pulled out some dark brown towels and looked at the tag on them. “Chocolate. Why are all of the towels named after food?” 

Even though she was annoying me with her work ethic, I snorted. “I asked myself the same thing for the entire time I worked in this room.” I lifted the hand towel I was working on. “Espresso.” 

Lindsey folded the towels slowly and methodically, like it was tiring her out. I’d folded two bags of espresso in the time it had taken her to complete two towels. After a few minutes, she attempted conversation again. “You’re friends with Jeff and his boyfriend, right? What’s his name, Byron?” 

I raised my eyebrows. It’s not like By and Jeff keep their relationship a secret, but they also don’t go around crowing about it, either. I’ll bet most of the staff doesn’t know. “Yes,” I said, not sure where this was going. 

She tossed hair out of her eyes in a gesture that was so natural that I’m sure she did it twenty times a day. “I feel like I’ve seen you both somewhere before.” 

I didn’t know what to say to that so I kept working. Lindsey went on, not really noticing how awkward I was feeling. “I lived in Stoneybrook until I was eleven or so. Do you remember me?” 

I shook my head. “Sorry.” 

She looked put out. “Maybe you remember my brother, then? His name’s Ham, but everyone used to call him Buddy.” 

“Buddy Barrett?” 

“Yeah, that’s right! You remember him?” 

I put a stack of towels back into an empty bin. “He was friends with my brother Matt and Byron’s brother Nick.” 

Lindsey put her towel down and I cringed. It was about 9:10 and she’d done maybe two minutes worth of work. She barreled on. “Nicky Pike? Byron’s Nicky’s brother?” I nodded. “Oh, my God, he was so cute! Is he still that adorable?” 

I wanted to guffaw. I had never thought of Nick as anything close to adorable. But Jordan and I had had a conversation about what makes someone attractive. It can’t all be about looks, because otherwise, anyone who was attracted to any of the triplets would find them interchangeable. Nick’s not bad looking—he looks a lot like his brothers when he wears his contacts, and he’s already a couple inches taller than the triplets. But he’s been so reclusive and odd the last few years that he would never even register on my radar. “I guess,” I said. 

Lindsey was off and running. “Oh, you have to tell him I said hi. I wonder if _he_ remembers me. Listen, I’m going to go to the bathroom. Watch the room for me, will ya?” She walked off without waiting for my reply. I looked at her folding table. She’d folded a whopping three towels. 

I chuckled with disbelief. I was still shaking my head when Byron came back from customer service. “We work with a bunch of nuts,” he said, probably referring to Lissa, who is often known as “Lissa the insane” behind her back for her weird behavior. 

“You don’t even know the half of it.” I was surprised he was talking to me after my comments earlier. Either he had realized I was right, or he’d decided it wasn’t worth getting so huffy about. I decided to accept the peace offering either way. “Did you know Lindsey thinks your brother is adorable?” 

By made a disgusted expression. “Adam?” he asked. 

“No, Nick.” 

It looked as if a wave of nausea passed by his face. “I’m going to say it again. We work with a bunch of nuts.”

**Author's Note:**

> Coming soon in _The Boys of Summer_ :  
> Nick gets a surprising request from someone even more surprising.  
> Adam gets some unbelievable news.  
> Matt and Haley have a heart to heart.
> 
>  
> 
> Expect posting to be slow for the next couple weeks. It's term paper time again! Ya gotta love the quarter system.


End file.
